Roy MacGregor last night blamed the chaos and poor behaviour of Rangers as the reason for the lack of a major Scottish Professional Football League sponsor.

 

As the Ross County chairman raised the spectre of part-time clubs playing in the Premiership within three years if our game keeps haemorrhaging cash, he pointed the finger of blame for many of the current ills directly at the gates of Ibrox.

The Staggies' millionaire financier laid bare his growing concern for the health of our game, amid falling attendances, declining quality on the park and dwindling income.

He is adamant that the near-daily dramas surrounding Rangers are at the heart of an image problem that is exacerbating the decline.

"The [increased] financial discipline of clubs has affected the brand and you can see that in the way we can't even get a sponsor," said MacGregor yesterday.

"My own belief is it will still be difficult to get a sponsor as long as Rangers behave the way they have been. We're not projecting ourselves as businesses that can self-manage ourselves."

Along with St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour, MacGregor played a significant role in creating the current SPFL format by blocking much-derided moves towards a split of the top two leagues into three leagues of eight. But the head of the world-renowned Global group of companies is increasingly worried for the future of Scottish football. The SPFL hasn't captured a headline sponsor since it's creation in summer 2013. MacGregor warned that we are fast approaching the day when teachers, plumbers and electricians were kicking a ball about in Scotland's top flight in their spare time.

"The number of full-time players in Scotland is diminishing the whole time,' he said. "You're going to see part-time football in the Premier League within two or three years. That's coming. It's straightforward economics. The fan-bases are just not there any more. And if you don't entertain, eventually the quality will get less and the finances worsen.

"Increasingly, the players of talent will either play for the biggest clubs in Scotland or, primarily, go to England. I think that scenario of part-time teams in the Premiership is where it's heading if, as a football nation, we don't get attendances through the gates and get our act together.

MacGregor, though, believes the game still has the potential to re-generate, with green shoots apparent even in these dark times.

"There are great shoots, too, when you look in certain quarters. Hearts, for me, are one club that have gone and identified where they got it wrong and then rebuilt," he said. "All the benefits of rebuilding last year have really given them momentum, especially with the younger players this year. "So out of all the bad, sometimes comes good. I think we're developing more players in Scotland than we've ever done because clubs have simply had to do it.

"But I think the number of players involved in football is reducing and will keep reducing amid the players' need for financial security. With a wife and family, are you going to take a year's contract and earn £1,000-a-week or are you going to take a job and earn £1,000 a week and then £500 in part-time football wages? Part-time players are now training four nights a week and are athletes, so I think the football model is changing."

Perhaps strangely, then, MacGregor swiftly rules out the prospect of part-time football at Ross County.

"I don't think it works here - this needs to be a full-time club. Our link to the academy system is right and it is giving youngsters in the Highlands the chance to be a full-time footballer. But I think we have probably neglected some of that in our ambitions to get to where we got to. We had to re-address that."

MacGregor, meanwhile, revealed Ross County plans to invest a significant sum in a new scouting network stretching across the UK and into Europe. The Highland club previously relied almost solely on the contacts of director of football George Adams and manager Derek in attracting fresh talent to the first team and youth academy. While Jim McIntyre, as manager, will have full control of decision-making, MacGregor plans to transform the tools at his disposal.

"We'll end up with a sizeable scouting system because today's football world is about recruiting right in the summe," he said. "If you don't plan ahead for the next summer, the manager hasn't got time to do it. We will need to, and have been, developing a scouting system of the kind that we wouldn't have thought of doing in the past. To a degree in George Adams' era, he knew the Scottish scene and he knew where to go to pick up players. That's gone. There's not enough players. You see teams with 22, 23-man pools now.

"We will be looking in Scotland, England, the rest of the UK and Europe. There's nothing wrong with foreign players so long as they're good enough. "It will be very expensive. But if you don't get the right players you won't have the right team on the park. If you just take married guys and stick them in a flat in Inverness, with family ties elsewhere, that eventually that will run out. We need people like Richie Brittain and Scott Boyd, who have put their roots down here in the Highlands. The long-term vision is to have our own supply of locally-based and locally-reared talents coming into the first team, wherever they may originally hail from."